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Future Tech

Rimi Singh of TBWA, second from left, demonstrates how to use Layer, a smartphone app that makes ads interactive, during an event at the company's Mississauga head office last month.

Photograph by: Michelle Siu
, National Post

Augmented reality (AR) apps for mobile devices are poised to grow by leaps and bounds. The latest research indicates that the appetite for these interactive digital applications is on the rise as smartphone adoption accelerates.

The hotbed of AR activity can be found in the Android and iPhone arenas, where in the U.S., these two platforms account for over 80% of the smartphone market, according to Nielsen. As of February 2012, more people in the U.S. own a smartphone than an older-style cellphone.

Depending on the region, Informa reports that between 8.0% and 38% of the world’s population owns a smartphone, and believes the number could reach 60% by 2016 with the Asia-Pacific region experiencing the biggest rise.

In tandem with this growth in usage, more AR apps are being embedded into devices, providing a compelling platform for advertisers and marketers. These combined market forces have the potential to transform the interactive experience for the day-to-day consumer. ABI Research reports strong growth in AR browsers for Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone platforms. So much so that a market that started out at a mere $21-million in revenues in 2010 is expected to reach $3-billion by 2016.

Amsterdam-based Layar, a developer of AR apps, can attest to the growing interest in the interactive experience. It reports its browser is now available on over 20 million smartphones globally, with active users averaging between two to three million. Since its product launched in June 2009, over 17,500 organizations have started developing on the platform, publishing over 4,300 layers.

This uptake is rooted in print interactive apps, where pages of magazines, newspapers, flyers and posters are activated with videos, links to websites and the ability to share through social networks. There’s a good reason for this: early indicators show that interactive print is proving its worth in triggering responses from consumers.

With print interactive apps, a user holds their smartphone over an AR-activated page. The app recognizes the page and displays buttons, images, videos and other contextual digital content over the image on the page. Users can click on any of that content to be put through to a digital destination such as a website, video, web-shop, Twitter feed, Facebook page and more.

Media outlets that have used AR apps to activate pages in print campaigns report promising results. When compared with digital banners on websites, click-through rates for AR activated content is up to 100% higher. Early campaigns have reported click-through rates between 10% and 30% depending on the call to action and its relevance to the audience, while the rate for banner ads stands at well under half a per cent, according to MediaMind Technologies and Adtech.

It may be early days for augmented reality adoption in the mainstream world. But a strong business case, combined with rapid uptake in smartphone adoption, will soon transform this niche technology into a marketing mainstay.

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